Defense:
21

Utility:
0

Updates

10/12/12 - Masteries updated.

Présentation

Hi I am Anton Willbender. No one should know me but anyway. I've played Olaf for a while and I've maid up my own build which i didn't see here so it made me wright my first build. And by the way i'm french so please appologise my mistakes.

I will first explain some notions I use that might not be clear for some new player :

– CC : Crowd Control. It's the name given to all the skills, items active ability, aura or proc that can control one or more player such as stuns, slows, snares, roots, suppress...

– Shurelya's reverieTeam Item : items that are often build by support, tank and some jungler which have aura (aura are passive ability on item which have a point blank AoE that apply a buff on your ally including you or a debuff on the enemy near you) or some active or passive that can help the whole team (the most usual 'team items' are Shurelia's Reverie, Aegis of the Legion, Frozen Heart...)

– Chaser : Simply a champion who is good at chasing. It can be for several reason such as gapclosers, lot of CC, movement speed boost skill...

– Harrasment and damage trade : Harrassing an opponent means that you attack him or her just to make him lose life. Your aim is not always to kill an enemy, especially in early game when the most important thing is to farm. And if you can make your opponent in a difficult place, making him use his or her potions or denying him or her from farming that's great.

– Farm : The farm is the most important thing in League of Legends with teamplay. You should always have in head that a kill is approximatly 10 minions killed. Farming is often better than chasing an enemy through the whole map. The farm is usually counted in 'CS' (I actually don't really know what it stands for but I guess the C is for creep that is just a synonym of minion.)

– Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverse Commit : Commiting yourself means that you go too far from your teammates or an allied tower into the enemy territory. For exemple if you chase an enemy and you cross the river on your lane you're commited cause you're far from your tower and the jungler can come to gank you.

– Gank: A gank is when one or more people come from the jungle or other lane to kill some one. They generally come from the river. A 'ninja gank' is when they succed to go through the top and bot lane bushes without be seen.

– I'd like to make a little focus on damage type too : There is 3 type of damage in League of Legends :

- Physical damage : these damages are made by skill that reads to deal that kind of damage and auto attack (including minions, neutral monsters and towers). Physical Damage can be improved by the 'AD ratio' (which appears orange in the skills). Buying this kind of damage will improve your basic attacks and your skill that take AD ratios. This kind of damage can be mitigated by armor. AD stands for Attack Damage.

- Magical damage : these damages are only dealt by skills that says so, usually having an 'AP ratio' (that appears green in skills). AP is usually only build by champions registered as 'mage' who are in mid according to the meta. Few champions build hybrid builds trying to have both dommages. That type of damage is not for you as Olaf. This kind of damage can be mitigate by magic resistance. AP stands for Ability Power.

- True damage : The third kind of damage is not the one you will encounter the most (exept from Ignite). It can't be improved by anything but can't be mitigated by any way neither (exept by invurability like tryndamere or Kayle ultimates or Zonya's Hourglass activate ability).

I'm sorry to insist on some basic notion but I point here some things that i've find out by my self as i've started League of Legends alone and it took me a little time to understands some stuffs that i'd like some one taught me so I'd be happy if these little pieces of advices can just help one person. But let's go on the build in itself, with more accurate and deeper things.

PROs and CONs

Pros
– Good chaser
– Good in all game phases
– Tanky and great damage
– more than 700 true damage with Ignite
– Ulti that disable all CC on you and prevent you from them for 6sec
– very versatile
– Can rush toward the carries and kill them quickly
– Brolaf and Pentakill Olaf skins
– Can catch up a bad early game

Cons
– Expensive build
– Need to manage a lot of things at the same time.
– This build is quite 'selfish' no 'team item'
– May be hard to manage a ranged solo top
– You have to succesfully hit and pick up your axe with your Undertow
– You need to farm a lot and well

Runes

I call 'Flat' the runes that give you bonuses at the start of the game and 'Scaled' the ones that give you bonuses per level.

Can be trade for:
- Greater Quintessence of Gold x3: More gold can soother the high price of the build (NB: With the 3 quint of fortune you will earn 18 gold per minute (less than 1 CS) so in 20 min you'll have 360gold. No enough in my opinion to worth your 3 quint spaces.)
- Greater Quintessence of Magic Resist: A good deal can be 2 AD quint and 1 Armor.
- Greater Quintessence of Armor: I don't use them cause I'm never in need of MR but they are good. I prefer to build MR with items if I need some.

Can be trade for:
- Greater Mark of Desolation x9: Flat Armor penetration. I have AP mark instead of armor pene because Olaf has a lot of true damage and passive armor pene on his ult (plus the masteries that's enough). Moreover AD help in last hitting but both are really good and as i don't build armor pene in my build neither it makes them really good.
- Greater Mark of Attack Speed x9: Attack speed. This will give you quite a lot of atk speed but i'd rather have AD. It's great with Olaf's passive though.

You will earn more to build armor than other thing on sceals so I don't advice something else but can still be trade for:
- Greater Seal of Attack Damage x9: Flat physical damage. Better last hitting and better damage output overall.

Why do I take scaled magic resist here where I take flat anywhere else? This is simple, Physical damage are strong since the beginning for the game minions waves, towers and all champs start with an AD pool so you'll need armor at the start where as magic damage are quite low in the beginning of the game. All Champions start with 0 AP (without runes and masteries) but magical damages can go upper than the physical ones so it's better to have more MR lately than less but straight away.

Items

This build is quite expensive but made for a solo top Olaf who shouldn't have issue to farm. Plus I build an early golden heart which is turned into Randuin's Omen quite lately. About the item order i've put it as I buy them in most of my games. I have the feelings that all the objects have the same importance. I always find it too bad to build Maws of Malmortius so late because of the awesomeness of its passive on Olaf.
Anyway, you MUST adapt your build and the order of the items with your lane opponent and then the enemy team. For exemple if it appears that your lane opponent is a strong AP such as Rumble or Vladimir do not hesitate to buy Maws of Malmortius before your frozen mallet or at least Spelldrinker. We will see after the alternative builds. For now I will explain one by one why i've chosen these items over others.

Boots of Swiftness : Olaf is a melee fighter and needs to be near his target and he is primary a chaser. So the bonus speed that these boots offer over the normally lvl 2 boots picked by most of the players will allow you to catch back your pray even if you miss your axe once.

– Other boots would be : Berserker's Greaves (synergize very well with olaf's passive), Mercury's Treads (even thought I think Olaf does not NEED it, it's still the best boots in the game).

Frozen Mallet : This item is really impressive on Olaf. Building Frozen Mallet as soon as possible will offer you an incredible sustain and burst and an awesome proc. Indeed now chasing your enemy will not be a problem anymore!!! I think this item is one of the best on Olaf. It synergizes with everything :

– More life equals a better Berserker Rage(as Olaf becomes more and more efficient as he loses percentage of his life it's better if the percentage equals a great amount of hp.) and a better Vicious Strikes (let me remind you that the AD boost given by the W is also a percentage of your life.) Long story short : more life equals hitting faster and harder!

– More AD. Well nothing to explain here... Just hitting harder is always good!

– Unique passive : This is the best part of this item. Now each time you hit your opponent with a basic attack you will slow him or her by 35% of his or her movement speed which means that to escape you, your opponent will have to flash and it better have to be over a wall otherwise an incomming axe might hit his or her back.

Warmog's Armor : Since the changement brought by the third season Warmog does not needs to be build as fast as before so I now build Randuin's Omen in second object.

Atma's Impaler: This is a choice of mine to build Atma right after Warmog. Building it before is useless and too late is useless too. As this item is quite cheap you might build it fast and it will quickly give you a good amount of AD (approximatly 60) which will allows you to catch back the damage output of the game.
Since you've made Warmog the last minutes you might feel that your damage output is not strong enought by now and this item will bring you back in the game.
An other good point with this item is the 45 armor that will be very important for Randuin.
The 18% chance of critical strike isn't that great since it will be the only one you'll have but still.
This item it the second reason that I build so much health.

Randuin's Omen : Oh that item! This item my friend is the greatest thing on Runeterra!!!! If you have good eyes (and enought time if you see it one an enemy) you should be able to read « Screw you Ezreal » written on it (no offence, i'm just pissed of that champ but you can switch his name by the one of the AD carry you're running toward). But let me explain :

– Again more life, always more life. Still the same synergies that were explain on Frozen Mallet and Atma.

– Armor, this is good for two reason. First is obvious : More tankiness. The second is for Randuin's passive. (see just below)

– UNIQUE Active : I swear that this is the best that could be on Olaf. Listen well because it will be quick. Run as fast as possible on the enemy AD carry. Laught at all the CC that the enemy team tries to apply on you to stop you by activating your ultimate. E the AD carry and activate the ability of randuin and kick his or her ***! Then go on with the AP carry and run back as you should be low life. By the way if you die in the process don't worry. If you were able to chop down the AD carry your job here is done. Before doing that be sure to be followed by your team.

(TIPS: I suggest positioning Randuin's Omen in the first or second space in your inventory. You can move it by holding the left mouse clic and draging to the place you want. And then the keyboard shortcut is 1 or 2 depending on where you put it)

Maws of Malmortius : I'm always sad to build this item last because of its passive. This synergize so well with Berserker Rage. But the other items are way too important. There is only one thing you shall remember : If you have trouble in a game with magic damage, consider build it sooner (even if you only build Hexdrinker). As it's only a defencive item with an awesome passive I build it last or when I need it.

How to play Olaf with this build

What to do in each game phase :Early game :

FARM! No one will never say it enough. Farm is everthing. Just 'last hit' (don't continously hit minions with your auto attacks. Just wait that a minion is low life enough to kill it in one hit and do it). Why? In the order not to push your lane. It's important for junglers. Indeed it's easier for a jungler to gank some one who have cross the river so try to make your enemy cross it and try not to do it. If your lane pushs anyway you have several option :

– Back : if you have enough money back and buy some items and a sight ward. When you come back on your lane it should be pushed back.

– Roam : You can help your team, for exemple, if I see that the mid is pushed for the enemy I try a gank on it. Or, if i'm confident enough, I try to steal red or blue or at least reset the timer and do the enemy golem (or mine if i'm in the purple team).Nota Bene : If you're stealing the enemy jungle remember to always leave one little creep alive to prevent they from respawning.

– Push hard : If you can see the enemy jungler on the bottom lane, you can try to push your lane. If you choose to do that. Ignore the last hitting stuff and kill the minions wave as fast as possible (you still have to kill them by yourself to have the money). And try to damage the tower as much as possible. Vicious Strikes is good for that. Remember that you will take the aggro of (be targeted by) the enemy tower if you do damages to the enemy champion under it.Mid-game :

Once you have took down the enemy tower it will be harder and harder to safely push your lane because you will be too far in the enemy territory and so easy to gank. If you have took down the enemy tower faster than the other you can roam, gank, counter jungle or helping the mid lane to push. Be careful that your tower don't fall (if it's not already done) if you leave your lane. At the time of the first team fight as tanky bruiser you have to deal as much damage as possible to squishy champions.

Let me remind you the order for the focus :
-AD carry
-AP carry
-Solo Top
-Jungler
-Support

Your role is to make the damage dealer for the opposite team out of battle. This will be really easier once you have Randuin's Omen. Remember not to commit yourself, stay with your team. If no teamfight is on, farm where you can and counter jungle (try to steal red as often as possible). I know that the build I share is expensive but remember that the AD carry needs more farm than you so don't steal his or her farm.

Late game :

The late game is not really different than the mid game but now you should have Randuin's Omen and it should be very easy to take down the enemy carries. Still farm when you can but don't be away when teamfights occur. Olaf can push quite well too and take down tower really easily and quickly. He can also escape from a gank with his ultimate.

Skill Sequence

: For each 1% of health missing, Olaf's attack speed is increased by 1%.

Here is a great part of Olaf's devastating power. As you go low health your attack speed increase which means that you can take the adventage is 1v1 without the enemy noticing it! Combine with Vicious Strikes this is really deadly cause you will have a lot more sustain than your enemy think and you'll make more and more damages.

This is the skill that requires the most skill from you cause you have to hit your target plus picking up the axe!! But if you master this no one will be able to escape from you. The reason I max it second is because the slow amount increase.

This skill is what makes Olaf absolutly devastating! It enables him to focus anyone in the enemy team without fearing CC or escape any gank or... basicly do whatever he wants!

Olaf is not a hard champion to master. They're only few things that might be tricky to handle but as always I suggest training to overcome these issues. With his passive Olaf becomes 'stronger' at low health. You have to manage your health more than with more usual champs.

In my opinon when use your Vicious Strikes is a crutial question. Too early might be not really effective but too late is ... too late and you're dead. I'm used to activate it at ¼ of my health (more at half health in early game). I've already made a double kill with less than 200 health. In fact as long as you don't take a great amount of damage in one shot or skill you can stay around 200/300 health and in fight. Your 21% lifesteal should allow you to mitiged the damages taken and with your high attack speed due to your passive you can take down enemy with higher life than you. I've oftenly be called 'lucker' for killing some one with very few life but that's only thanks to Berserker Rage and Vicious Strikes.

Then come the axe throwing. Master it! To chase properly some one you have to hit the one you're chasing but also pick up the axe in order to refresh the cooldown by 4.5sec so you can spam your skill and once you can hit with your auto attacks Frozen Mallet should do the thing.

The third thing with Olaf is (like most of the champs) when to use his ult? Olaf's Ragnarok is an utility ultimate which means that you have to learn when to use it. And most of all you have to analise the situation you're in to see if you're going to need it or not in order not to waste it. Ragnarok can be used to escape a gank, as many jungler have CC ( Cho'Gath, Maokai, Alistar, Amumu). An other way to use it is to dive into the enemy team (as explained earlier) to get to the carries and destroy the enemy damage dealer before the enemy can react or CC you and get you down (remember your ultimate is 6 second long, don't feel invincible). In the mastery of 'when use your ult' you have also to feel if you will be able to take down at least one of the carry before dying. This include few questions as :

– Does my team will follow me? (in order not to find yourself in the middle of the enemy team... ALONE)

– Do you have enough damage output/sustain to kill at least one carry? (NB: it's not important if you die if you have been able to kill the carries or at least remove them from the battle. But it's better if you don't. When I say 'it's not important if you die' it doesn't mean that you can feed. 1 kill for 1 death is not a good option. If you're the only one to die but you and your team kill 4 enemy it's a good trade.)

– Remember to check the Summoner's spell before going in. ( it's never good to be Exhaust in front of an AD carry or to discover that the carry still had that Heal and Flashs away)

– Will your team be able to win the team fight? (don't be too brave if your carries do not have enough damage yet don't go and make your team be wiped)

Combos

Olaf's combos are nor tricky nor difficult to find. A little more to execute as the first begins by repetively using your Undertow which is a skillshot.

Olaf is maybe one of the champ that needs you to calculate the damage output (yours and the enemy one) and to manage your life the best. By the way I say 'E each time it's up' but even if you will rarely be in a situation where you'll need to spam it, keep in mind that it costs health! That shouldn't be an issue but still.

Summoner's spells

- Flash : Quite obvious. Olaf has no escape mecanism he needs it. Or to flash in then E to finish some one.
- Ignite : MORE TRUE DAMAGES! With Ignite and your Reckless Swing you'll make up to 740 true damage! Plus the healing debuff of ignite, this is deadly!

If you're playing ARAM (all random all mid) consider taking Barrier and Heal. I can't tell for dominion. Only played it a few time but i would say Ghost and the special summoner's spell that power up the towers.

Alternative Builds

Don't get me wrong this are not other build. It's just ideas to adapt your build depending on the enemy team (Whoever you are playing with you must ALWAYS adapt your build on whom your playing against!). First of all if you have trouble with any source of damage build sooner the items which will protect you from. Like Maw of Malmortius for magic damages and Randuin's Omen for Physical damages and then if you still have trouble managing it here are few items that might come handy.

Few items I don't build and why

First of all more life and as I've explained earlier more life on Olaf means more tankiness and more damage output with Berserker Rage and Vicious Strikes.
Second is more damages. No explaination needed.
And third is a 100% chance of procing the slow which is awesome!

I know that I lose a lot of thing that Frozen Mallet has not but I will list them here :

- The 350 mana is quite useless. Olaf do not need more mana, as long as you don't spam Undertow and your Vicious Strikes you won't be out of mana.

- Movement speed: that always a shame to lose movement speed but as I usually build Boots of Swiftness so that's not a great loss.

- Attack speed: I know i don't build attack speed and that's too bad because it's really great with Berserker Rage but that's not enough to make me change my mind. If I could build one more item on Olaf it would be Phantom Dancer.

- The second is not that awesome on Olaf. It's always great to have an AD boost but It's better on a Wu kong (ridiculous Q) or a Jax, Jayce... (only to speak about solo top) plus one thing i didn't speak of because it's way too obvious, Olaf have absolutly no AP ratio.

Bloodthrister: This is a really good item but I don't like it on Olaf because it looses stacks on death and it may occur that you die diving the enemy team plus Olaf has his own 'steroïd' that gives him AD and lifesteal (up to 21%) which make Bloodthrister less important.

Phantom Dancer: As I've said If I could build one more object it would be that! More movement speed is great to chase or escape, atk speed is really great on Olaf and the critical strike percentage combine with Atma's Impaler is nice but Phantom Dancer is less important than the other objects.

Wriggle's Lantern: I really love this item it give every thing a bruiser needs : AD, armor, lifesteal and free wards!!! but this build is to expensive and I can't afford an early Wriggle even if I sell it after. Moreover you can't allow yourself to build some items too late.

But I have always wanted to say 'My Black Cleaver right into your head!' while throwing Olaf's axe.

Shurelya's Reverie: I've never like this item on Olaf... If fact it's the selfish part of me that speaks here because I really like receiving the buff from my team support or jungler but I never build this Item (except while I play support).

Youmuu's Ghostblade: The active ability of the item is awesome combined with Frozen Mallet but as many object I find other objects more important to build. Plus the flowers of the animation of the active ability don't fit Olaf...

Zeke's Herald: Each time I build this item i'm impressed by it. In my opinion it's an underestimate Item and it should be more known but as always no more empty space.

The efficiency of the dual Doran's Blade is not to prove yet again. It gives good sustain and allows you to play more aggressively but my arguments are still the sames. I can afford to lose money and time in addidtional items. I fact my first back it for buying Golden heart and then Boots of Swiftness and Phage. If you feel that you need lifesteal and AD just press W.

Match Up

Here is a list of solo top and some advice to have better chance to win against:

Darius (easy): Darius shouldn't be a real problem for you if you can harass him with Reckless Swing few times and then fight him with Vicious Strikes activated. You just have to be careful of his passive and his ultimate when he has reach the level 6 if you're too low life. (remember that Reckless Swing plus ignite will make more true damage than his ult)

Malphite (easy): Malphite will just stack armor and life. Just harass with your Reckless Swing and he'll leave you alone.

Dr. Mundo (Easy): He can poke you with his knife just like you with your axe beside that your axe goes through minions! Plus you have a greater burst. Just don't attack him while his ult is on and don't dive him if it's up.

Poppy (easy-medium[/color): never be against her but seems their is nothing to fear. You just have to know that her ultimate gives her invurability from all sources exept from the champion she has targeted, so if it's not you just wait the end and attack again.

Jax (Medium): I've never realy knew how to handle the streetlampman... Just stay away when he activate his Counter Strike and you shall be fine. You should win the damage trade too as long as you're not stuned. Remember that YOU have a true weapon.

Olaf: Only depends of how good you are compared to the other one. Out farm him, prepare a gank with your jungler. Don't die by being ganked and that should be okay. Pay attention to his build too.

Shen (Medium): The guy is tought, the guy is taunting, the guy is banned. No greater threat. Call ss and warn your team when he ult but no difficulties for you.

Tryndamere (medium): becareful at his life regen with his rage and his ult but otherwise nothing hard. Don't commit yourself if you're not sure to kill him.

Gangplank: Never tried but if you don't get brained by his heal/cleanse that should be ok.

Rumble (Medium): 3 words : CARE HIS ULT! Rumble has early high damage output and a little shield that might make him hard to handle but he is a melee mage. You should be able to deny him quite easily. Build an early Hexdrinker.

Kha'Zix (Medium): Don't stay isolated, harass him and you should be ok. He is quite squishy.

Nasus: Never tried but the thing I would fear the most would be his slow that would be disable by your ult. Consider buying Mercury's Treads and deny him from farming if able. If he can't farm his Siphoning Strike his damage should be lowered by far.

Wukong (Medium): He is a tanky bruiser just like you, your ult will minimise his. Be careful not to juke your skills on his clone or worse your Ignite!

Cho'Gath (medium): Cho'gath is rarely build with damage. Just be careful as he has a lot of cc but nothing too difficult. If you can prevent him from getting him feast stacks he will be easy to kill.

Teemo (Medium-Hard): I trully hate this yordle! Lot of damage over time... Learn to handle it. Don't fight him mid life. Plus the little ... run fast! CARE!

Plus consider not staying too low life if there is a Karthus in the enemy team (his ultimate hit every enemy champions!!). Consider buying Hexdrinker early.

Summary

These ratings are from my very own experiences and games. If you don't feel that way or if you have other tips to counter some solo top please share. If you feel also that I miss something about an item or if you think that some items could be better please tell my which one and why. Thanks for reading, please share, make instructive comments so I can improve myself. And see you on the Fields of Justice, Summoners!

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!